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Design Simulation and Analysis of Polysilicon- based CMOS Micromachined

Piezoresistive Microcantilever for Glucose Sensing

Article · July 2012

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Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2012 Vol II
WCE 2012, July 4 - 6, 2012, London, U.K.

Design Simulation and Analysis of Polysilicon-

based CMOS Micromachined Piezoresistive
Microcantilever for Glucose Sensing
Nina Korlina Madzhi, Anuar Ahmad

Abstract- The measurement of glucose is of great importance A series of market analysis reports on Bio-MEMS is issued
in clinical diagnosis. This is especially essential for the by Francisco et al. which stated that a market of 3 billion
continuous monitoring for example in a patient suffering from dollars for bio-chips was foretold for 2004 which include a
diabetes mellitus which is caused by the high levels of glucose growth of 800% for DNA chips, 1000% for Protein chips,
in human physiological fluid. Even though many research have
been done for glucose measurement, there are still many
1000% and 60% bilirubin analyzers 60% for new born[1].
research in progress to develop new methods and technologies
for sampling, detecting and monitoring glucose levels. This A. Piezoresitive Microcantilever
work has focused on the design simulation analysis of a
Polysilicon-based CMOS micromachined Piezoresistive Cantilever sensors are based on relatively well known and
Microcantilever beam for glucose sensing application. In simple transduction principle “A simple cantilever beam can
principle, adsorption of glucose on a functionalized surface of be used as a sensor for biomedical, chemical and
the microfabricated cantilever will cause a surface stress and environmental application[2]”. Fig.1 shows a target
consequently the cantilever bending. In this paper, the biochemical species adsorbing on a functionalized surface of
microcantilever beam is constructed and bending analysis is
performed so that the beam tip deflection could be predicted.
the cantilever beam.
The device model was simulated using CoventorWareTM, a
commercial finite element analysis (FEA) tool designed
specifically for MEMS applications. The structural variation of
the piezoresistors designs on cantilever beam is also considered
to increase the sensitivity of the microcantilevers sensor since Beam bending
the forces involved is very small. Immobilisation of Conversion of downward/
bioreceptor produces biochemical event into stress induced
Keywords-Piezoresistive, Microcantilever, Glucose, biochemical event dflection of deflection
MEMS, CMOS micromachined
cantilever beam

Fig. 1 The microcantilever beam response

I.INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade there is a dramatic increase in sensor

research and developments and applications. There are The changes in the surface properties of the microcantilever
tremendous advances made in sensor technology and the through absorption or adsorption of analytes to receptor
sensing technologies developed are as varied as the molecules will influence its surface stress. This causes the
applications such as from materials to micro and nano deflection of microcantilever and it is proportional to the
sensors to wireless networks. Sensor design and operation analyte concentration[3]. Usually the deflection is in
requires a cross-disciplinary background likes electrical micrometers and can be detected by several method such as
engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, chemistry, optical[4]and capacitive detection[5].There is increasing
biology, industrial, etc. MEMS Biosensor (Bio-MEMS) concern that the requirement for external devices for
devices are used in detecting infectious diseases such as deflection measurements such as lasers, optical fibers or
HIV, DNA analysis, proteins and genotypes. They have capacitors is the disadvantages of these techniques where
established markets and finding new applications, the alignment and calibration of these external elements are
leveraging on a combination of low manufacturing costs, required.
compact size, low weight and power consumption as well as
increased multi-functionality. However, by integrating piezoresistive material, the
disadvantages can be avoided where Piezoresistive
This work was supported in by Malaysian Science and Technology
(MOSTE) under Grant IRPA ,Code 50043, Research Management Institute
microcantilevers can detect the changes in surface stress due
(RMI) and JPBSM UiTM (sponsor and financial support acknowledgment to cantilever deflection upon adsorption or absorption. This
goes here). paper uses finite element analysis to simulate the
Nina Korlina Madzhi is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, geometrical parameters for polysilicon-based piezoresistive
UiTM, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ( phone:+603-5543-6072;
fax: +603-5543-5077; e-mail: nina6875@ yahoo.com).
microcantilevers by using Coventorware. The displacements
Anuar Ahmad is with Faculty of Engineering, Unisel, Selangor. (e-mail: and the ΔR/R changes of the cantilevers were also discussed.
[email protected]).

ISBN: 978-988-19252-1-3 WCE 2012

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2012 Vol II
WCE 2012, July 4 - 6, 2012, London, U.K.

II. DESIGN SIMULATION 




R  1 ZT2 
K   (2)
In this section, the simple piezoresistive microcantilever R E1h1 E2h2  h  1h  
2 2
 h  
2

design use in simulation is shown in Fig. 2.1  E1h1ZT h1 h2  1    1  E2h2ZT h1 h2  2  
  2  3 2    2  
   
xs
(2.4)

where E1,h1, are the Young’s modulus and thickness of the

polysilicon cantilever beam while E2, h2, Young’s modulus
and thickness of the piezoresistor, ZT is the distance from
neutral axis to top of the cantilever beam containing
piezoresistor and K is the gauge factor of piezoresistor but
only applies when the length of the Si piezorresistor is the
same as the cantilever length.
Fig.2.1 A solid 3-D model of piezoresistive microcantilever

Fig.2.2 shows the schematic for a microcantilever beam III SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
subjected to a concentrated moment on its free and while the
other end is fully constrained. A solid 3-D model (Fig. 2.1) was created based on the thin
film material property data. The finite element technique
was used to solve the differential equations of each physical
domain where the differential equations are solved by
discretizing the 3-D model into a mesh that consists of a
Δσ number of elements with a specified number of nodes. After
the mesh model is generated MemMech solver was used to
analyze the variable stress simulation (Fig.3) with the same
conditions of analyzes concentration and the same analyze
capturing area.
M

Fig 2.2 Fixed- free end Microcantilever beam

Based on the Stoney equation assumption, the surface stress

bends the microcantilever beam with uniform curvature into
the concentrated moment induced bending and the following
curvature relation is given by [6]:
M0
k (2.1)
EI
Fig. 3 Active area with applied stress from
2 to 10 Pa of initial state
Where M0 is the applied concentrated moment, E is the
elastic modulus and I is the moment of inertia of the beam.
A. Effects of Microcantilever Beam Thickness on
By comparing with the curvature relations, the following
Piezoresistive Microcantilever Deflection
relation between the surface stress and the moment per unit
length can be established as
Polysilicon material is used as the piezoresistor in this
 t (2.2)
M0  piezoresistive microcantilever design simulation. The
2 Polysilicon material properties used in this work are as
Since the moment is directly proportional to the induced shown in TABLE 3 below.
surface stress and the microcantilever beam geometry
property, the above can be further simplified as There are four piezoresistive microcantilever designed
2(1   )  l (2.3) named as PZR10, PZR20, PZR30 and PZR40 respectively
z ( )
E t as shown in Fig. 3.1.
Which is a well known form of Stoney equation commonly
used to measure the deflection caused by residual surface The length and width of microcantilever beam design used
stresses in thin films [6].  s is the differential surface in the simulation is fixed at 195µm x 70µm. However, the
stresses on the surface of the microcantilever, E the is the difference between these four designs is the thickness of the
Young’s modulus, v is the Poisson’s ration, r and h are the BPSG sacrificial layer: 0.9µm and 1.8µm; and the length of
radius of curvature and thickness of microcantilever beam. the piezoresistor which is at 80µm, 110µm, 140µm and
For piezoresistive microcantilever in Fig. 2, the relationship 170µm.
between the surface stress and the relative change in
resistance ΔR/R for a piezoresistor is given by[7];

ISBN: 978-988-19252-1-3 WCE 2012

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2012 Vol II
WCE 2012, July 4 - 6, 2012, London, U.K.

TABLE.3
POLYSILICON MATERIALPROPERTIES
Surface stress of 2 N/m were selected as the minimum value
Material Polysilicon
in this study because the surface stress changes at this level
Elastic Constants E(MPa):1.69e+005, have been observed in many microcantilever
chemical/biosensors. From Fig.3.2 and Fig.3.3 above, it can
Poisson:2.2e-001
be observed that, when a 2 Pascal force applied onto the
3
Density(kg/µm ) 2.32e-015 microcantilever, the microcantilever deflection is higher for
the 0.5µm thick microcantilever compare to the 1.0µm thick
TCE Integral Form(1/K) 2.8e-006 microcantilever. By comparing within the BPSG sacrificial
layer, the BPSG sacrificial layer with the least thickness
Thermal Cond(pW/µmK) 1.48e+008 produces the higher deflection value. For both
Specific Heat(pJ/kgK) 7.12e+014 microcantilever thickness, as the piezoresistor’s length
increases the deflection is also increases.
Dielectric 0e+000
PiezoResistiveCoeffs(1/MPa) Pi_11: 1e-009 B. Effects of Sacrifical Layer (BPSG) Thickness on
Piezoresistive Microcantilever Deflection.
Pi_12:1e-011
Pi_44:1e-004 Two designed piezoresistive microcantilever simulation
models with each sacrifical layer made from
Tensile strength 1.2 GPa Boronphosphosilicate Glass (BPSG) material have thickness
of 0.9µm and 1.8µm. In this simulation, a 2 Pascal (Pa)
force applied to microcantilevers with four different
piezoresistor’s length and two microcantilever thickness of
0.5µm and 1.0 µm.
BPSG

Poly 2
Poly 1

Fig. 3.1 Piezoresistive (PZR) microcantilever design structure

Fig.3.4 Piezoresistive microcantilever deflection when a 2 Pascal force

applied to the microcantilever with sacrificial layer thickness of 0.9µm with
two different microcantilever beam thickness of 0.5 µm and 1.0 µm

Fig.3.2 The microcantilever beam with 0.5µm thickness deflection for four
different piezoresistor lengths and two different sacrificial layer thickness
when a 2 N/m (Pa) surface stress is applied on the surface.

Fig.3.5 Piezoresistive microcantilever deflection when a 2 Pascal force

applied to the microcantilever with sacrificial layer thickness of 1.8µm with
two different microcantilever beam thickness of 0.5 µm and
1.0 µm

The designed microcantilever size is 75µm in width. The

Fig.3.3 The deflection displacement of a PZR microcantilever beam with deflections of four different length of PZR microcantilevers
1.0µm thickness versus the piezoresistor length when a 2 N/m surface (80µm, 110µm, 140µm and 170µm) when a 2 N/m surface
stress is applied on the surface. stress is applied on the surface of each piezoresistor is

ISBN: 978-988-19252-1-3 WCE 2012

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2012 Vol II
WCE 2012, July 4 - 6, 2012, London, U.K.

shown above for BPSG sacrifical layer thickness of 0.9µm The fabrication process started from patterning a 0.9μm –
(Fig3.4.) and 1.8µm (Fig.3.5). In Fig.3.4, when the thick photoresist of BoronPhosphosilicateGlass (BPSG)
piezoresistive microcantilever with BPSG sacrificial layer of sacrificial layer on a silicon substrate by standard
0.9µm thickness, the microcantilever beam with 0.5µm photolithography. The microcantilever beam is then formed
thickness shows the largest microcantilever beam deflection by depositing a polysilicon layer of 5000A (0.5Qm)
when compared to the microcantilever beam with 1.0µm thickness using Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition
thickness. Fig.3.5 with BPSG sacrificial layer of 1.8µm (LPCVD).Next, a 500nm-thick Silicon Nitride (SiN) layer is
thickness, the microcantilever beam with 0.5µm thickness deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition
also shows the larger deflection when compared to the (PECVD) which will act as an insulator. Another polysilicon
microcantilever beam with 1.0 µm thickness. However, the layer is then deposited with a dimension of 195μm x 75 μm
different in these two graphs is that BPSG sacrificial layer u-shape resistor pattern and blanket implanted to achieve a
with the least thickness at 0.9 µm have the largest deflection resistor value of 1.2kΩ.. Then the electrode pad was
at approximately 0.013 µm for piezoresistor length at 170 patterned and deposited with Aluminium and finally the
µm for microcantilever beam thickness at 0.5 µm . For cantilever beam is released by wet etching. The cross
BPSG sacrifical layer of 1.8 µm, the maximum deflection is section SEM image of the designed piezoresistive
at 0.00348 µm when the piezoresistor length is 140 µm. microcantilever is as shown in Fig.3.7.

C. Design Stress Simulation of Piezoresistive

Microcantilever

Other than microcantilever deflection obtained, the FEA

stress results also use Von Mises Stress to measure the
yielding occurs when the design stress exceeds the material
yield strength. Design stress is the maximum surface under
simple loading conditions or Von Mises stress in complex
loading conditions.
Fig.3.7 FESEM of microcantilever sensor cross section
Fig.3.6 shows the misses stress obtain from simulation when
force applied onto piezoresistive microcantilever and it can
be observed that the measured mises stress does not exceed IV. CONCLUSIONS
the the polysilicon tensile strength of 1200 MPa because if
the mises stress is greater than the tensile strength, the The finite element modeling was used to simulate the
material will theoretically break[8]. mechanical behaviour of a MEMS cantilever with the
possibility of detecting the glucose concentration. The read
out signal can been done by piezoresistive sensing with the
polysilicon resistors arranged in a Wheatstone bridge
configuration where the output voltage of the bridge is
directly proportional to the amount of cantilever deflection.

REFERENCES

[1] F.J. Canu, A. Diaz, S.O Martines, S.P Mora, H. Ceballos, D. R.

Jimenez, "A knowledge-based entrepreneurial approach for business
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Abdalla, "Design and Finite Element Analysis of Piezoresistive
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[3] X. Z. Mo Yang, Kambiz Vafai and Cengiz S Ozkan, "High
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ISBN: 978-988-19252-1-3 WCE 2012

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
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